All posts tagged Goshi Hosono

The battle to lead Japan’s top opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, will be a three-horse race. Former deputy prime minister Katsuya Okada, former DPJ secretary general Goshi Hosono and former health minister Akira Nagatsuma officially kicked off their campaigns on Wednesday. Renho, who had stated her intention to run last month, withdrew from the race after she failed to gather enough supporters within the party.

In the year since he opened his Facebook account, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has embraced the social media site in a way that’s unlike any of his predecessors, praising it as a direct channel to the public. But a recent online quarrel with an opposition lawmaker has raised questions about his Internet savviness.

From photos with fellow global leaders to snapshots of day-to-day activities like slurping ramen for lunch, Mr. Abe reports back to his Facebook supporters with increased frequency as elections near. He has also taken advantage of social media as a voice amplifier, accusing some traditional media of having an anti-Abe agenda. Read More »

Some key lawmakers in the Democratic Party of Japan have come up with a fresh remedy for their party’s sharp drop in popular support: Emphasizing its centrist roots.

The strategy aims to draw a sharp contrast between the embattled ruling party and its rivals, which have been pitching their hawkish policies and nationalistic ideologies to appeal to voters worried about growing friction with China and South Korea. Shinzo Abe — head of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party that has consistently surpassed the DPJ in recent polls — has put Japan’s neighbors on guard by touting steps to strengthen the military, and by visiting a controversial war shrine last month. Read More »

After a couple of days of deliberating, Mr. Hosono Friday morning told Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda he would not challenge him, giving the incumbent a clear path to re-election in the party leadership contest.

“Fukushima has been occupying my mind — I can’t abandon my job when everyone is working to tackle obstacles with no time to lose,” the environment minister told reporters. ” That’s the main reason,” he said.

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Japan could see the birth of its youngest leader, even younger than Barack Obama, in two weeks.

That’s IF the 41-year-old Goshi Hosono decides to run for the ruling party leadership race, and IF he wins it. The head of the ruling party is guaranteed the prime minister’s seat given its majority in the lower house of parliament.

But the “IFs” may not be as big as they seemed just a few days ago, when the consensus in Nagatacho, the center of Japan’s politics, was for an easy victory by Yoshihiko Noda, the current prime minister and the incumbent head of the Democratic Party of Japan.

As strange as it sounds, Japanese main political parties hold leadership elections regardless of whether they are in charge of the government or not. So even though it’s during the PM’s mandate, the premier still runs the risk of getting dethroned by someone in his own party eyeing his spot. Read More »

While Japan was transfixed by the drama of restarting nuclear reactors, another potentially big shift on the atomic-energy front was taking place quietly in the wings.

Japan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan last week acceded to opposition party requests to retract a plan that would set an age limit of 40 years on nuclear reactors. The DPJ now says that the age limit, which had previously been included in the new nuclear safety bill under deliberation in parliament, will be decided instead by the country’s new regulator, which is to be established as early as this autumn. Read More »

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is pulling out the stops to show a skeptical world that the troubled reactors at Fukushima Daiichi — and in particular the “spent-fuel pool” atop reactor Unit 4 — won’t collapse and spill out radioactive fuel during the next big earthquake.

On Saturday, Tepco let a bunch of journalists, as well as Goshi Hosono, the minister in charge of Fukushima Daiichi cleanup, into the Unit 4 building to take a look for themselves.

What did they see? JRT annotates this account, from a pool report of the tour, made available to the foreign press. Read More »

Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of the nuclear accident, in November.

It has been a punishing day for Japan’s nuclear officials.

Environment Minister Goshi Hosono said Friday he would forgo his monthly cabinet salary of Y1.5 million, or roughly $20,000, to take responsibility for an employee of his ministry dumping radioactive soil sent from Fukushima prefecture near his backyard in Tokyo’s suburbs. Read More »

Japan has had 14 prime ministers in the past twenty years – and uncomfortably enough for incumbent Naoto Kan, it could have yet another one in September. Goshi Hosono, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, left some room for speculation at a news conference Wednesday on what could happen at the ruling party’s internal election to choose its new leader in September.

Reuters

Goshi Hosono, influential deputy secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.

Here is why we should listen to Mr. Hosono carefully. The 38-year-old lawmaker is a rising star within the ruling party, known for his expertise in economic policy issues. But more importantly, he is known as a close associate of Ichiro Ozawa, the powerful politician who presided over the DPJ’s personnel matters until he was forced to step down as party secretary general in June.

In order to stay party president, and thereby prime minister, Naoto Kan must win approval of party members in the September election. And there is speculation in the media that Mr. Ozawa and his followers may choose their own candidate to run against Mr. Kan. Read More »

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